MANY High Street shops and businesses in Northallerton were hit by power cuts on two of the busiest days of the year this week.

The lights went out on Monday and Tuesday, forcing many stores and firms to close.

Angry traders could only look on as shoppers flocked to the town for new year bargains and treats.

More than 1,000 premises were hit by the cuts as power engineers struggled to locate a problem on an underground cable.

The worst affected were businesses at the southern end of the High Street.

The main post office had to close on both days.

One of the worst hit places was the recently-opened restaurant The Caf. There, manager James Butterfield repeatedly changed the menu as some dishes became impossible to supply.

High-risk food from fridges was also thrown away and nearly 30 diners who had booked in were turned away on Monday evening.

"We have been hit really hard," said Mr Butterfield. "This was one of the busiest times we have had and we couldn't offer people anything but cold drinks."

After Monday's cut lasting several hours, staff came in on Tuesday to find some of the fridges were off.

"We had to throw food away and offer a limited service," said Mr Butterfield. "We have lost a lot of trade. With sales and the holiday period, we were expecting bumper business. Instead, I have had to keep amending the menu boards as dishes became unavailable.

"The worst aspect has been the uncertainty of the situation. We have had to raid Tesco's to keep going!"

At the Nag's Head pub, landlord Johnny Johnson kept going with the use of candles. "We provided what service we could, and I was just about to close for the day on Monday when the power came back on," he said.

"But trade was well down. It has been terrible."

Woolworths also closed down on Monday afternoon.

Assistant manager Kath Hine said the store had lost a lot of business.

"There was no option but to close on health and safety grounds," she said. "We can't put customers at risk. All we could do was look on at a very busy town."

A spokesman for power company NEDL said some 1,500 premises had been affected by the cuts.

"We did everything we could to restore the supply as quickly as possible and will be writing to those affected to explain what went wrong."

However, it seems compensation has been ruled out as supply has to be off for at least 18 hours before payments can be considered